85 years since the beginning of the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany for security reasons, i.e. because of growing anti-Semitism after the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, will not be commemorated in Sarajevo, confirmed Vladimir Andrle, president of the Jewish cultural, educational and humanitarian society “La Benevolencija”.
Andrle noted that the level of security in BiH has been raised due to the conflict in the Middle East, and said that the Jews in Sarajevo do not want to draw attention to themselves.
He pointed out that the commemoration of the beginning of the persecution of Jews, which was planned for November 8 in Sarajevo, was not even officially announced, but that some media, as he said, misused it to show this city as fundamentalist and Islamist.
“There is nothing else in the background. In these times, everything concerning the Jewish community is seen through the prism of the war in the Gaza Strip. There were individual threats to members of our community, who were targeted on the forehead, and protests in support of the Palestinians with banners of anti-Semitic content, but we don’t want to put the small Jewish community at risk,” Andrle said.
On the eve of the 85th anniversary of “Crystal Night”, in which the Nazis attacked and set fire to thousands of synagogues, shops and other buildings in Germany in 1938 that were owned by Jews and physically abused them, a concert was to be organized in Sarajevo to remind to that tragic event and sent a message that such crimes, which were a prelude to the Holocaust, must never be allowed again.
A concert in Sarajevo at the Ashkenazi synagogue was planned before the escalation of violence in the Middle East, and now it has been cancelled.
